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YouTube execs have finally announced the long-awaited revamp for YouTube Music that they say will eventually replace Google Play Music. In interviews with Recode, CNET and USA Today, they revealed the new YouTube Music will soft-launch next Tuesday with a $10 subscription packages (you can sign up now for updates right here).

Similar to its previous iteration, the focus here will be on personalization that tries to learn what music you like, but this time it's pushing music videos to the background in favor of audio. The personalization will naturally tie into Google Assistant AI, and pull from a subscriber's YouTube history to serve up suggestions. Google Play Music will remain for now, but the plan is to "close gaps" between services like YouTube Music's lack of a music locker for users to upload their tunes before GPM goes away at some unspecified point in the future -- YouTube exec T. Jay Fowler told USA Today it could as far away as 2019.

Update: YouTube officially announced the changes here, confirming its Music Premium service will launch May 22nd at a $10 per month price. Google Play Music subscribers will get access as part of their membership automatically and the blog post said that (for now) "nothing will change -- you'll still be able to access all of your purchased music, uploads and playlists in Google Play Music just like always."

It also touts the new app's personalized home screen that "dynamically adapts" to your preferences, history, current time and location (just like Google Play Music). You can still use YouTube Music for free, but Premium enables background listening, downloads for offline and removes the ads. The new service arrives Tuesday in U.S., Australia, New Zealand, Mexico and South Korea.

Sinemia has an idea as to how to beat MoviePass at its own game: offer subscriptions that model the way you usually go to the movies, with other people. It's now offering a range of "Sinemia for Two" subscriptions that, as the name implies, let you bring a partner or friend to the theater. The basic $10 monthly plan (£10 in the UK) offers one movie for two, but you can step up to two movies for $14 (£14), add 3D or IMAX to the mix for $20 (£20) and jump to a third movie for $30 (£30). And yes, you can pick the seats to be sure you stay together.

At the Geneva Motor Show last month, Volvo flaunted its long-range plug-in hybridPolestar 1, which can pull with 600 horsepower thanks to its two electric motors and a 2.0 liter turbo engine. The final price on such a beast has just been revealed at Auto China 2018 in Beijing: $155,000 in the US, €155,000 in Europe and 1.45 million RMB in China.

Apple is apparently putting its Texture purchase to use to build a subscription-based news service. Bloomberg reports that the electronics juggernaut is looking to make some changes to the way Apple News operates and that the new premium offering should launch sometime within the next year. A cut of subscription revenue will go to magazine publishers, of course. Texture's quasi-Netflix approach to reading offered all-you-can-eat magazines for $10 a month.

Last month, car brands felloverthemselvesannouncingnew luxury vehicle subscription services. Latest but not least, Mercedes has added its own part-rental, part-concierge service to the list. A pilot program will begin in Nashville and Philadelphia this June.

The rumors of BMW's American branch joining the car subscription craze were true. The automaker has launched a pilot Access by BMW program in Nashville, giving you a more flexible alternative to ownership that lets you switch cars as often as you like (through a mobile app, of course) without paying extra for maintenance. It's expensive like the Porsche equivalent, but that also means you're choosing from higher-end vehicles in lineup.

We already knew Disney was planning to debut its standalone ESPN streaming service this spring and how much it would cost, but now we know exactly when it will arrive. The network announced today that its ESPN+ subscription will debut April 12th. On that date, you can expect to tap into a library of sports content that includes live event coverage, ESPN originals and on-demand options for $5 a month.

Getting a new car is getting even easier these days. BMW, Lexus and Volvo have all started selling cars via subscription. The Care by Volvo program gives you an all-wheel-drive XC40, insurance, routine maintenance, roadside assistance and no money down for $600 a month. That sounds pretty great, but it's also super easy to sign up. Now you can sign up and pay for your monthly car sub via an iOS app and Apple Pay.

Lincoln announced this week that it's expanding the pilot of its subscription service. The company said late last year that it planned to launch such a service and while a small selection of 2015 models have since been available through Ford's Canvas platform for those in San Francisco and West Los Angeles, Lincoln is now including a much wider range of 2017 pre-owned vehicles for customers in West Los Angeles. Monthly payments depend on the mileage package a user wants, but they also cover insurance, warranty, maintenance and roadside assistance.

Just a day after a report about BMW's planned car subscription service, Lexus has announced its own take on the concept. The Lexus UX compact luxury crossover will be available via purchase, lease and a brand-new subscription option in December of this year. Details on how such a service will work — as well as vehicle pricing — will be announced closer to when the UX goes on sale. In addition, like the 2019 Corolla Hatchback, the new Lexus UX will come with CarPlay and Alexa functionality.

It's no secret that many people use YouTube as an unofficial Spotify alternative, and artists aren't happy knowing that many of these listeners have little incentive to pay for music as a result. YouTube has a new solution, though: nag users until they switch over. The service's music head Lyor Cohen told Bloomberg in an interview that YouTube will boost the number of ads some viewers see between music videos. This would theoretically "frustrate and seduce" would-be subscribers to YouTube's next-gen streaming service.

Good journalism is worth paying for, full stop. As part of a larger plan to help valuable reporting thrive in an age where content is a commodity, Google unveiled a new tool for publishers called Subscribe that makes it trivial to -- what else? -- subscribe to premium news services.

The next development in ride hailing services could be subscriptions, as Lyft recently emailed a number of riders invites to its "All Access" program. While the specific plans offered to each person varied, the idea is that by paying a weekly or monthly rate they could pre-buy a number of rides. For people using the service as a substitute for car ownership it could be appealing at the right price, but there's the rub.

Dota 2is a completely free-to-play game, with all the MOBA's heroes available to new players from day one. Valve makes money by selling different in-game cosmetics, announcers, HUDs, etc. When major tournaments roll around, the house that GabeN built also puts out time-limited "Battle Passes" that add challenges, co-operative game types, fantasy leagues and other things that encourage your participation in exchange for special effects and the latest hero skins. That's how it's worked in the past, but this year Valve is trying a more consistent approach to monetization with the new Dota Plus subscription.

When Volvo introduced the smallest member of its SUV line, the XC40, it wasn't the car that got all the attention. It was how the Swedish automaker planned on leasing it. With Care by Volvo, would-be XC40 drivers wouldn't invest $35,200 to own the all-wheel-drive vehicle but rather pay a monthly subscription of $600 that includes insurance, routine maintenance, wear and tear, roadside assistance, and zero money down. So yeah, it's a bit like a lease. But better.

VR porn is many things, but cheap isn't one of them. Just like conventional movies, you're going to pay a pretty penny to own anything that isn't free. For VRPorn.com, the solution is obvious: turn virtual smut into a subscription service. It's launching a Premium service that, for $25 per month, provides "hundreds" of videos and games from over 25 studios. That makes your Netflix subscription seem like a bargain in comparison, but the company is clearly betting that it'll justify itself after a few views.

HTC launched a monthly subscription for VR apps last spring, allowing users to choose up to five titles per month for $6.99/£6.99. As of March 22nd though, the price of that Viveport plan is going up. The company announced today that beginning next month, a Viveport subscription will cost $8.99/£8.99. However, there are a few caveats. First, existing customers will stay with the original $6.99 price through "at least" the end of the year.

As promised, MGM's Stargate Command service has launched the first three episodes of Stargate: Origins exclusively for its streaming customers. The service is making a pitch similar to, but not exactly like the one attempted by CBS' controversial All Access setup with Star Trek: Discovery, charging a one-time $20 fee for access to "the ultimate Stargate library including SG-1, Atlantis, Universe, and all 3 movies." Sure, they used to be available on Netflix in the US, but now their owner is trying to squeeze a bit more value out of the franchise.

We know that Disney will launch its subscription streaming service in 2019, but now Deadline has learned more about the kind of content that will be on it. Info gleaned from Hollywood creative types shows that the plan (at first) will focus on content that's "consistent with the Disney brand" (read: nothing R-rated and leaving the various Marvel series where they are). Expect a launch in the US first before it goes overseas, with four to movies and five TV shows in the first year.

Its original content will include TV shows and movies, with movies like 3 Men and a Baby, Sword in the Stone, Don Quixote and Lady and the Tramp in the works. Two films for the service that have already been made and are in post-production include Magic Camp and Noelle, which stars Anna Kendrick.

During the company's earnings call this week CEO Bob Iger said several Star Wars shows are in development with one close to being announced. Deadline's report backs that up, adding shows for High School Musical, Monsters Inc. and a live-action Marvel series.

Overall Disney looks like it's going for a very familiar feel out of the gate, relying on content that appeals to adults of various ages who might add this alongside a Netflix and/or cable subscription. If it launches with a price that's cheaper than Netflix and others, then that nostalgic appeal (plus exclusive access to big-budget flicks) could pull large amounts of subscribers in quickly, even for a new service.

To date, the Xbox Game Pass has been a tricky value proposition. While there have been a few recent hits, it frequently comes across as a clearinghouse for games whose best days are over. You'll have a better reason to subscribe going forward, though: Microsoft has promised to add all of its in-house Xbox One exclusives to Game Pass the moment they're available. Sea of Thieves will be one of the first when it launches on March 20th, and this should also include the long-delayed Crackdown 3 as well as future games in franchises like Halo and Gears of War. So long as you're paying that monthly fee, that blockbuster title won't cost you extra or require a months-long wait.

Apple CarPlay is being offered in more and more vehicles, often as standard equipment. BMW, though, charges for it. BMW currently offers CarPlay as a $300 option on cars equipped with navigation. This will change, though, as The Verge reports the German automaker will switch to a yearly subscription service.

As Disney prepares for its streaming service that's launching next year, Variety reports it has snagged an executive to run operations. Kevin Swint (LinkedIn) worked at Apple for five years, eventually running its iTunes movies business worldwide, before managing content and launching Milk Video at Samsung. Now, as the SVP and GM of Disney's BAMTech Media company, he'll be in charge of creating and running the company's new Netflix competitor.

The new service will be home to Disney's new releases from 2019 on, including Star Wars and Marvel flicks, and could add considerable additional content if its purchase of Fox becomes official. We don't have many details about it yet, however, CEO Bob Iger said during an earnings call that at launch, it will be priced cheaper than Netflix.

Amazon has offered a monthly Prime subscription for a good long time now, but today it's unfortunately getting a bit more expensive. As of today, the price for a monthly Prime subscription is going up $2, from $10.99 to $12.99. Students with a valid .edu email address will continue to save money, but that option is going up as well, from $5.49 to $6.49. Both changes go into effect today for new customers; existing customers will see the increase on their February bill.

On December 18th, Patreon will be changing how it handles service fees. Currently, Patreon takes five percent of whatever creators make on the site but because of various processing fees that also apply, creators actually lose seven to 15 percent of their earnings. So now, Patreon says it wants to streamline those fees and on the 18th it will charge patrons a new service fee of 2.9 percent plus 35 cents per pledge. That means creators will now only see a flat five percent taken from their pledges. However, while the funding platform is presenting this change as a benefit for creators, many are concerned that these new charges will cause a good portion of their patrons to stop pledging.

MoviePass, the $10-per-month movie theater subscription service, was so unexpectedly popular when it launched last August that the company struggled to meet demand. Its success hasn't gone unnoticed, especially by the competition. Theater chain Cinemark is creating its own service, Movie Club, but with far less generous perks. For a $9 monthly subscription, it grants a single ticket (instead of one every day) but also gives 20 percent off concessions and cheaper bulk ticket rates.